The Homecoming Saga

Book 1: Spartan

Chapter 4: Stand & Repel

The Chief could hear them up the corridor, their big, heavy footsteps reverberating all across the bulkhead.

Dejá-vu, the Chief mused. Once again, the Chief was hidden in a junction of the corridor, using a reflective surface to spy on what was ahead. He hefted the automatic rifle they had given him. Whilst initially it resembled the BR55, on closer inspection it was a squarer, more antiquated version of the BR55-HB. The Chief was looking forward to seeing how it handled. "It's called an SA-80." One the marines had told him, "We left all your weapons back on the wreck."

Even though the admiral had let him into the command centre, and had even asked him to help in the ship's defence, the Chief had a nagging suspicion that he wasn't fully trusted. It might have had something to do with the 3 Marines the colonel had ordered to "stick with him, and make sure the frakker stays in line." Cortana also noted helpfully that one of these marines was the one whose nose the Chief had broken earlier.

The Brutes were coming closer. Oddly enough, there were no support units, like Grunts, or shield bearing Jackals; they must not have made it off the ship. The lead Brute was hefting a spiker, whilst the two behind him had carbines. All were in full combat armour. The Chief had started signalling to the others to fan out and keep quiet, but they were either not familiar with his signals, or they were just arrogant. Either way two of them rushed round the corner and opened fire, and the only reason the third, broken-nose, didn't go round was because the Chief physically dragged him back and dumped him on the deck. "Stay down." The Chief growled.

The other two were mowed down quickly. One of them got a face full of spiker rounds, and the other got her chest melted by carbine shots.

"Oh Gods….." Broken-nose was staring at his former comrades, a look of sheer horror on his face.

"Give me your grenades." The Chief said. They hadn't even given him grenades.

"W-w-what?" There had only been one exchange of fire and already the Chief was practically on his own. He tried appealing to the man's (hopefully) drilled in professionalism. "I gave you an order soldier, give me your grenades!"

That seemed to snap him out of it, unfortunately. "Who are you to give me orders? You're not even colonial!"

"Oh dear." Cortana commented. The Chief punched the man for a second time that day, although this time, he aimed for the temple. The soldier crumpled, unconscious. "At least he'll stand a better chance at living this way." Cortana said as the chief stripped him of his weapons.

Meanwhile, the Brutes had been inching slowly up the corridor, wary of more ambushers. The Chief noticed that one of them was breathing heavily, his chest armour cracked. Not bad, the Chief thought, and looked again at his 'SA-80'.

"Chief. I've been listening in to the Colonials radio frequency, sounds like a lot of Brutes escaped off the ship. They may have been planning this all along." "Great." "A lot of fighting is taking place around the port side, especially the 'flight pod'. You need to get over there."

The Chief was now at the edge of the junction. If it weren't for his air-tight suit, he was sure he would be able to smell the Brutes by now. He grabbed one of the grenades. "Give me a minute."

The Chief lobbed the grenade; it rebounded off the bulkhead and exploded in the face one of the carbine Brutes, who looked very surprised. Before the others had had a chance to recover, the Chief had already emerged from the junction, and was firing his gun into the lead brute. The Brute fell on his back, face mangled. The remaining Brute was limping back up the corridor, firing half-blind. The Chief's shields flared as he rolled over the lead Brutes corpse, grabbed a plasma grenade, and lobbed it in the direction of the last Brute. It stuck. Roughly translated, the Brute's last words were "Damn you Demon!"

The Chief reloaded his weapon. "Where's the port flight pod?" He asked. "I think its here." A Navpoint suddenly appeared on the Chief's HUD, "I've managed to glean some schematics from the system, but that's about it. They really have this system locked up." "Just do what you can."

He double timed it down the corridor, following the waypoint Cortana had given him. The closer he got to the flight pod, the louder the gunfire became. Every now and then he would see dead crewman or marines, and perhaps the odd Brute. Things weren't going well.

Eventually he reached a junction that had been heavily fortified by the Galactica's crew. Major Adama was there, along with a squad of marines, and some crew members. Everyone nearly jumped out of their skins when they saw him. "What the frak you doing here?" "Lending a hand." He said as he fell into line.

The Chief could see the Brutes down the other end of the corridor; they seemed to be fighting on two fronts. "Is that the flight pod through there?" "Yeh, the aliens are between us and the flight pod. Our deck chief and his crew are trying to hold them off, but I don't know how much longer they can last."

The Chief looked back down the corridor. He could see the Brutes on the far side inching their way slowly inside the entrance, suggesting that the deck crew were having a hard time holding them off. "Grenades" He said.

"What?" The Major was firing his carbine down the corridor, hitting a Brute in the chest plate. "I need your grenades sir." The Chief repeated.

The Major started to frown, but then a flurry of spiker rounds and carbine shots hit the defenders, and several marines and crewman went down with a cry. The Chief saw a plasma grenade come soaring up the corridor. "Get down!" he yelled as it stuck to one of the barricades. One of the Marines tried to grab it to throw it back, only to find that his hand was also stuck to it. The explosion threw his corpse and the barricade further up the corridor.

"Ahhh Frak!! Here, take em!" The Major had a spike in one of his arms, and so had to use his good arm to release his belt clasp. "Get those ugly fraks!"

"Yes Sir." The Chief repositioned himself at the junction, glancing down to see the Brutes hadn't capitalised on the havoc they had just caused. Their last mistake, the Chief thought. "Bet you can't kill them all in less than a minute." Cortana teased. "You're on."

The Chief carefully laid the SA-80 on the deck, and pulled out the pistol they had given him. He lobbed the grenade belt down the corridor. It slid to a halt right in the middle of the Brutes, who all jumped back in surprise.

The Chief took aim, and fired a single round. The entire deck shook, and smoke started drifting down the corridor towards the Chief. Grabbing the SA-80, he ran through the smoke and Brute fire, his shields flaring. It wasn't long before he was face to face with a particularly ugly brute with no helmet. A couple rounds to the face and he was down. Grabbing two plasma grenades, he lobbed them at the flight pod entrance where he could see a couple of Brutes firing down into the deck below. Without even waiting to see what happened, he turned to another Brute who was bringing it's carbine to bear. The Chief punched it in the chest, shattering the chest plate, and then emptied his SA-80 into the beast's mid-section. Several impacts hit the chief from behind, depleting his shields. He rolled forwards, grabbed two of the dropped spikers, and turned around, firing at the two Brutes behind him. They both dropped, faces mashed by Spikes. The Chief dropped the empty spikers and picked up a Carbine, inching his way towards the flight pod. Suddenly, a wounded brute with no armour rushed out of the entranceway, it's blood curdling scream reverberating along the corridor. The Chief punched it in the face, and it went down.

"55.65 seconds, you're definitely getting better." The Chief signalled to the Major that the way was clear and he walked to the flight pod to check on the deck gang. On the way, he noticed that one the brutes was still stirring, trying to reach for a weapon. The Chief shot it in the face.

"You like going for the face, don't you? Cortana commented as they entered the hanger.

--

"Attention! All available squads to the CIC! Enemy forces are surrounding the control centre, and are attempting to break in! Attention! All Availab-gunfire…static…."

The Chief was walking silently through the corridors, gun at the ready, following the Major towards the CIC. After they had secured the flight deck, the transmission has come over the intercom: The CIC had fallen, and the admiral, the colonel, and the rest of the bridge crew had been taken hostage. The fighters outside were coordinating themselves, the last of the enemy fighters despatched, but without the CIC, the Galactica was blind, and at the mercy of the remaining Brutes.

"Nowart, Vennick, take the starboard entrance. Spartan, you're with me, everyone else, hold here until I give the signal." The Chief moved off with the major, round the other side of the CIC as the other marines took position. Bodies were everywhere; some looked as if they had been thrown out of the doors, which had been all blown in. The Chief and the Major took positions either side of the door, looking at the scene below. 3 Brutes holding spikers stood watch over what was left of the command crew, and the admiral was over by the main console, being held by another Brute. The Captain of the Compunction, Gargantum, was in front of the admiral. It looked sounded like he was trying to get him to fly the ship.

You DARE defy ME!? HUMAN!? I will slaughter your crew, feast on there flesh, all whilst you're nailed upside down to the ceiling! Now tell me how to pilot this vessel!"

The admiral was bleeding from the forehead, and clutching a wound to his side. "….Get off my ship." He said.

Gargantum scrunched his face up into a snarl, and hefted his battle hammer. "Your impudence will cost you."

Meanwhile, the Chief was figuring out how best to take out the Brutes. Grenades wouldn't be of any use this time. "What do you think?" the major seemed just as stuck as he was, and they were running out of time. "What weapons to we have?" The Chief asked. "Apart from the 80's? Not much, a few storm carbines, and some pistols, I've got some explosive rounds on me though for my carbine." "Give them to me…sir."

The Major loaded his carbine with the explosive rounds, and swapped weapons with the Chief. His arm had been bandaged and now seemed to work well enough to hold a rifle. "Tell your men on the far side to open fire on the big Brute, and then have the others come in on my signal." "You sure you know what you're doing?" Despite being in the presence of a 7 foot tall armoured giant, the major still seemed sceptical. "Trust me," the Chief said, "I kill these guys for a living."

A cry from the CIC made the Chief look back into the room. Gargantum had the admiral by the neck, holding him a couple feet from the ground. One of the bridge crew tried to rush the warchief, but Gargantum swatted him aside with the hammer. The man hit the bulkhead with a sickening crunch. Time had run out. "Now."

Gunfire erupted from the far door, and slammed into Gargantum. The big brute dropped the admiral and snarled "Get them!!" and the other brutes turned their weapons to the door. "Show time." Cortana said.

The Chief ran into the CIC, firing tracer shots into three of the brute's heads, which exploded. The Chief turned but was tackled by the remaining Brute. Gargantum was still on his feet, his personal shield flaring. "Now!" The Chief yelled. The major and the rest of the marines opened fire, pouring more shots into Gargantum. The Chief was still wrestling with the Brute who tackled him, but a couple rifle shots from the major blew him off. The bridge crew were scrambling to get out, however the colonel, Mr Gaeta and a few others had picked up, or at least tried to pick up, fallen Brute weapons and add their fire.

Gargantum was in a rage, eyeing the chief just as his shields collapsed, he raised his Battle Hammer and charged with a mighty roar. "DEEEEEMMMMOOONNNNN!!"

The Chief was not often an impulsive person, he had been raised in the military doctrines of logic, reason, strategy, and more importantly the chain of command. But lately, the events with Halo and the Covenant had changed him, in ways that, when reflected upon in private worried the Chief. This was another one of those impulsive decisions that the Chief seemed to be making more off as of late. Ignoring the fact that he was weaponless, and his enemy had a giant hammer, the Chief charged at Gargantum. As the two foes neared each other, time seemed to slow down for the Chief. He could see the individual bullets slamming into Gargantum's armour, could see the hammer begin to sweep down in a blow designed to pulp the chief, he even saw the individual beads of sweat roll of the bests face.

The hammer came crashing down. The Chief sidestepped and grabbed onto the brutes arm. The deck was pulped and the shockwave drained the Chief's shield, but he was in a perfect position. Kicking the beast in the mid-riff, the Chief wrenched the Brutes hand from the hammer. Spinning, he palmed the other hand away from its grip, and with a groan, grabbed the hammer and swung. Gargantum, quick to recover, was about to launch himself onto the Chief's back, but instead got his skull imploded by his own hammer. It had been a gift from the great War-chief Tartarus, after leading a highly successful campaign against the human's Outer Colonies. His corpse crashed into the Tactical console, smashing it to pieces.

"I was almost worried there. Almost." Cortana said, as the major lead his marines carefully into, what was left, of the CIC. "Dad? Colonel Tigh? Are you ok?" He noticed someone else amongst the survivors. "Dualla!!"

The Chief had sat down against the side of the central DRADIS console. His shield unit was damaged, and he had taken some carbine rounds to his armour. All in all, he was alive.

The admiral, supported by the colonel, limped over to where the Chief was sitting. "Thank you Master Chief, that was one hell of a Job." "For a man in a green suit, you're alright." The colonel added.

"I'm getting a warm fuzzy feeling inside." Cortana said.

--

Stars. Hanging in the dark. Clustered together, hiding. Hiding from their creators. These are no ordinary stars, made of gas, light, energy…these stars are cold. Metallic. Merciless. Other Metallic things swarm around the stars, like ants. Guarding, protecting, watching. These stars are alive. Within one of the stars, there is a room. In this room, a council has convened. Their purpose: to carry out God's Will.

"We've found them."

"Where?"

"The one they call Starbuck lead them out of our trap. They jumped."

"Where? Do they know the way to Earth?"

"We don't know, but they found something."

"What?"

"Another."

"Another Human? Is it from Earth?"

"We don't know. This was not foreseen."

"God is toying with us. We have failed him."

"We have a chance at redemption. The Galactica is heavily damaged; they will have to stop somewhere for repairs. We will ambush them there, capture the other, and find the way to Earth."

"'So say we all'" They chorused, and the stars winked out, vanishing.

Author's note: It took a while, but here is Chapter 4: Stand & Repel. Sorry for the wait. As mentioned previously, this will be the last chapter in this introductory story arch, which i have now dubbed "Spartan". I will go back through the other chapters and edit them, taking into account feedback etc... and making it look like it's all part of one book. A little Spoiler for you, the next story arch, of a length to be determined, will be called "The Lost", and will feature the appearance of some 'old' allies and the Cylons. Another subject which i will touch upon just now is the subject of AU, or Alternate Universe. (A term i have only discovered recently, being new to FanFiction myself.) I have, and will continue to, try my best in keeping my story as canonical as possible, within reason: obviously a BSGxHalo crossover is not going to become official canon, but i have tried to only use what canonical material there is already to form my story. Unfortunately, for certain plot lines etc... to work, i may have to disregard/change certain canon facts, but i will try and make the damage small. Basically, all i hope to achieve is a story that, for all intensive purposes, is entirely plausible, that doesn't seem far-fetched, and that isn't stupidly AU. I hope i achieve that, and again, please keep you critiques coming, as i enjoy hearing from each and every one of you.

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. Also note, the future story arch "The lost" bears no resemblance to the story arch of the same name in the Gaunts Ghosts series by Dan Abnett.